Telephone network systems communicating location or status information concerning monitored mobile items--such as people, vehicles, cargo containers, barges and the like--have been described in the art. Typical of those systems is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,225 (Kennedy et als), for use with location information obtainable from configurations as diverse as global positioning satellite (GPS) systems, inertial navigation systems, dead reckoning systems, etc. Characteristic of these arrangements is the receiving of the information at a central location, remote from the mobile item of interest, as a completion of a telephone call-connection by which either voice or data message content is transmitted.
As will be appreciated, such connection entails a telephone company communication charge, now the order of 61.cent. per minute and more, with the cost being rounded to the next higher minute--so that a one-minute charge, for example, is levied for even as little as a 1-second data burst. As will also be understood, such communication costs become expensive as more and more transmissions take place between that mobile item and the central location, and then multiplied by the number of all the mobile items being monitored. Thus, for a fleet of interstate trucks, for example, communicating their whereabouts, their speed, their destination, etc., such charges could escalate quite quickly--even if the telephone company communication fees remain unchanged.